In chapter 3 of Revelation, Jesus gives high
praise to the Church of Philadelphia for studying
the scripture, for having great faith in Him and
love for Him, for accomplishing all of the
commandments He has given them to do and for
avoiding the sin that is so prevalent in the last
days of the Church age. Up to this point He
has zero complaints against this small group of
believers.

He wants to keep it this way. Christ wants
all members of the Church of Philadelphia to make
sure that their faith does not fail or even
stumble a little bit. He wants all of his
most faithful believers to be taken in the First
Fruits rapture to Heaven with Him. However,
they will need to continue in the faith up to and
including the very last minute of the day He
returns for the First Fruits Rapture. He
gives them the firm warning in Revelation 3:11:

Behold, I come quickly; hold fast which
thou hast, that no man take thy crown. (KJV)

I am coming soon. Hold on to what
you have, so that no one will take your crown.
(NIV)

Jesus is talking about the Crown of Life.
This crown is required for reigning and ruling in
the thousand year kingdom of Christ, known as the
Kingdom of Heaven in the Scriptures. Jesus
has given us commands to keep from falling, and
these commands are simple to understand, but very
difficult to accomplish. These commands in
Revelation 3:8 and 3:10 can be summarized as
follows:

Read
and obey the Holy Scripture

Let
people know that you are a follower of Jesus
and have pride in His name

Continue to be faithful through adversity and
suffering

Avoid sinning; even avoid thinking about
sinning

Be
watching for the return of Jesus Christ

All members of
the Philadelphia church have experienced trials,
temptations and tribulations during their
life. They have shown that their faith was
true by relying upon God and by following all of
His commandments. It is very important that
you continue in the faith and not stop watching
for Jesus' return; to not fall into the temptation
to ease up in your Christian work; and to not fall
into committing sins. In regard to sin in
the end times, the incidence of sin in the world
will increase greatly and there will be
temptations to sin that were not there even ten
years ago. Here is the verse:

Because of the increase of wickedness,
the love of most will grow cold, but he who
stands firm until the end will be saved
(NIV--Matthew 24:12)

Our life as a Christian could described as
something like a football game. You need to
play the full 60 minutes. Each play is
important! If you are on defense and you
misread your assignment, it could cause the
opponent to score and that one touchdown might be
the difference in you winning or losing the
game. If you are on offense and are thrown a
pass, you need to concentrate on catching that
pass, even if you know you are going to take a
hard hit by a defensive player. If you catch
the pass, your team can continue playing and
possibly winning the game.

If you play the whole game and take on your
coach's assignment with enthusiasm, you are more
likely to win than to lose. I enjoy college
and pro football and have seen the opponent of my
favorite team win in the last few minutes of the
game at more than one event. How
disappointing to be ahead after 59 minutes of play
and then lose the game on the last play of the
game. We are on God's team, the Church of
Philadelphia. We need to perform/work for
God the full 60 minutes and come out
victorious. We cannot let our guard fall and
sin against God and be defeated by Satan.

We cannot decrease the time spent reading the
Bible and serving Jesus--even for one
minute. Let's live for God and watch and be
ready for Christ's return! Let's even
increase our love and devotion for Christ and for
one another during these last few days of the
Church age. Here's a scripture passage that
encourages believers to remain faithful:

Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we
have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the
blood of Jesus, by the fresh and living way that
he inaugurated for us through the
curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since
we have a great priest over the house of God,
let us draw near with a sincere heart in the
assurance that faith brings, because we
have had our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil
conscience and our bodies washed in pure
water. And let us hold unwaveringly to the
hope that we confess, for the one who made the
promise is trustworthy. And let us take
thought of how to spur one another on to love
and good works, not abandoning our own
meetings, as some are in the habit of doing, but
encouraging each other, and even more so because
you see the day drawing near. (NET--Hebrews
10:19-25)

Here's another verse to remember:

But we should not lose heart in
well-doing, for in due season we shall reap, if
we do not faint (Gal 6:9).

If you slacken your watching for Jesus' return and
do not continue with enthusiasm for serving Him,
you could lose the high standing you now have with
God, be censured at the Judgment Seat of Christ
and miss out on ruling and reigning with Him in
His Kingdom. You could miss out on sitting
next to Jesus on His throne and miss out on being
glorified by Him for all Eternity. Don't let
this happen--remain faithful!